October
Comments 2016

A Wexford
father who sexually abused his daughter over a three-year period
has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The 45-year-old
man, who cannot be named to protect his victim’s identity, pleaded
guilty at the Central Criminal Court to 16 counts of oral rape and
16 counts of sexual assault against his daughter on dates between
2010 and 2013.

He has no
previous convictions.

His daughter
was aged 11-14 at the time she was abused by him.

Ms Justice
Isobel Kennedy described the offences as “appalling”.

She said “his
shame is justified,” adding that he should “be ashamed of his
odious conduct towards an innocent child”.

She said she
had taken into account “the forceful nature” of the man’s behaviour
and the fact that the child was vulnerable and afraid of
him.

The judge
accepted that the man had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had
shown insight into his own behaviour.

She suspended
the final two years of the term on strict conditions and ordered
that he undergo two years post-release supervision.

She declared
him a sex offender and she said he was to have no further contact
with his daughter.

A local Garda
told John O’ Kelly SC that the offences came to light in 2014, when
the girl alleged that her father had been sexually assaulting her
in the family home.

The abuse took
place when they were alone together in the house or when her father
came in at night from “socialising.” She said it took place very
frequently when he was socialising.

She said her
father told her not to tell anyone and that no one needed to
know.

The girl said
she was frightened at first, but as she got older she realised it
was wrong and began to resist and fight back.

She said she
did not tell her mother because she was worried about the effect it
would have on the family, and that it might cause her parents to
separate.

ANOn Oct
24th, 2016 @ 06:41 PM

Cork GP
jailed for indecent assault after appeal...

A Cork doctor
found guilty of indecently assaulting a teenage girl 26 years ago
has been jailed following an appeal.

Kevin Mulcahy,
57, of Creggan, Lombardstown, Mallow, Co Cork, had pleaded not
guilty to a single charge of indecently assaulting the 15-year-old
girl while on call to her family home on 23 December
1989.

He was found
guilty by a jury after a retrial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court
following 39 minutes of deliberations and was jailed for two years
on 25 November 2015.

Mulcahy was
granted bail in December 2015 by the Court of Appeal pending an
appeal, the conviction aspect of which was dismissed earlier this
month.

Giving judgment
on Mulcahy's unsuccessful conviction appeal, Mr Justice John
Edwards said today that Mulcahy had regularly attended the girl's
home to treat her mother who had terminal cancer.

On one of these
visits, the girl had a head cold and while examining her, Mulcahy
indecently assaulted her.

He was arrested
and interviewed in 2011 on foot of a complaint of indecent
assault.Mulcahy
successfully appealed his sentence with the Court of Appeal holding
that insufficient discount was given for mitigating
factors.

Having regard
to the particular circumstances of the case, Mr Justice Edwards
said Mulcahy was a first time offender with previous good character
and he would suffer very significant additional consequences
"admittedly through his own fault" by losing his income and
profession as a result of his conviction.

In addition,
members of his family had been greatly affected by the case. He was
the sole carer of his elderly father.

She also took
into account the severe effect the offences had on the
victims.

She imposed
consecutive sentences totalling 12 years and ordered four years of
probation supervision.

The
investigating garda said the accused came to live in the family
home in 2001 and sexually assaulted the eldest daughter on an
almost-daily basis for a year and a half.

He said the
accused cared for the four sisters when they came home from school,
while their mother worked, and regularly sent the younger sisters
out to play while he abused the eldest sister in her
bedroom.

The Garda said
the victim was aged between 12 and 13 at the time and she told him
that the only day she could remember that she was not assaulted was
the day of her confirmation.

The
investigating Garda said the accused threatened to kill the eldest
sister if she told her mother about the sexual
assaults.

He said the
eldest sister never told her mother what happened and experienced
flashbacks.

She revealed to
a teacher what had happened to her and a complaint was made to
Gardaí in 2005.

He said the
three younger sisters came forward and reported single instances of
sexual assault to Gardaí¬ after the allegations from the oldest
sister came to light.

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:42 PM

2/2…The
Garda said the accused was arrested in April 2005, but never
charged.

He said a
European Arrest Warrant was issued and the accused was remanded in
custody in the UK in April 2013 on a separate matter. He said the
accused man’s previous convictions included one for rape in
1995.

Tara Burns, BL,
prosecuting, read out victim impact reports from each of the four
girls, two of which were in court with their mother.

The eldest
daughter said she left home at the age of 18 as she “couldn’t
stomach to be in the same house he abused me in” and she no longer
celebrated birthdays or Christmases with her family.

The woman, who
now has children herself, said she felt she was “holding her
children back” as she did not leave them with anyone, including
friends and family members.

She said the
accused “took control of her life” and was now left with no
confidence and no trust in people.

The
second-eldest sister also said she no longer had relationships with
her mother or sisters and the family home was “no longer a happy
place”.

She also said
she turned to alcohol and cocaine to “block it all out” and ended
up in an abusive relationship which left her hospitalised on one
occasion.

She also said
she now took anti-depressants and her “life is turned upside
down”.

The
second-youngest sister said she “cannot look at her mother the way
she used to” and blamed her mother for the assaults.

She said she
found it hard to trust men and always questioned whether they were
like the accused.

The youngest
sister said she no longer had relationships with her sisters or
mother and fell behind in college due to thinking about the court
case.

She said she
felt confused as she liked the accused as a person and blamed
herself for the assaults.

Michael Bowman,
BL defending, said the accused was serving a sentence for rape when
he met the victims’ mother through her brother.

He moved into
the family home straight from prison.

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:34 PM

1/2...Move
to force rethink on child sex abuse payouts welcomed…

Children’s
rights campaigners have welcomed a move by the Irish Human Rights
and Equality Commission to try to force a Government rethink on its
attitude to compensating victims of child sex abuse.

The IHREC wants
the landmark European Court of Human Rights judgment in the Louise
O’Keeffe case taken back to the court for clarification following
concerns that the Government has deliberately taken a too narrow
interpretation of it in order to avoid taking responsibility for
other victims.

Chief
commissioner Emily Logan says the Government has instructed the
State Claims Agency to reject claims from other victims by making
them meet overly restrictive criteria.

“It is apparent
that the application of these criteria has operated to deprive
individuals who claim they have suffered abuse in circumstances
that were, for all material purposes, identical to those of the
applicant in O’Keeffe, from securing an effective remedy,” she
said.

Louise
O’Keeffe, from Kinsale, Co Cork, fought a 30-year battle for
justice after being abused by a teacher in the 1970s.

The State
denied liability in her case, arguing responsibility for her case
lay with the school board of management which was practically
impossible to sue.

In 2014, the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled the State did have to
take responsibility and it was believed several hundred victims
would benefit from the ruling.However, the
State Claims Agency has offered settlements to just seven while
threatening others that they will be left penniless if they pursue
their cases in court.

The IHREC said
the agency insisted that schools named in claims had to have a
prior complaint about an abuser and that the abuse had to happen
prior to schools getting child protection guidance in
1991-1992.

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:32 PM

2/2...Ms
Logan said: “The State Party has adopted an overly restrictive
interpretation as to the category of victims who come within the
scope of the judgment.”

The ECHR can be
asked to clarify the intent of a judgment if requested to do so by
a Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which means the
foreign affairs ministers of member states.

Two-thirds of
them have to agree to the request and Ms Logan is seeking a meeting
with Ireland’s Charlie Flanagan to ask him to support the move,
although for him to do so would be to question the Government’s
stance on the judgment. The Minister’s office did not reply to
queries.

Ms Logan said
the IHREC had a duty to act. “This is the first occasion on which
the Commission has called for a case to be referred back to the
court, a fact that underlines the importance of the issues raised
for the many survivors of sexual abuse who are potentially affected
by the court’s judgment.”

The Irish
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children backs the
move.

“The effect of
the State’s interpretation has been to limit out of court
settlements for victims of child sex abuse, which the ISPCC
believes is unacceptable,” said chief executive Grainia
Long.

“The State’s
response to child abuse sends an important message about how we
realise and respect the rights of victims.

Everyone should
believe that justice, legal sanctuary and redress is available, and
that if heinous crimes are visited on children, that they will be
able to achieve justice.”

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:29 PM

Llanwrda man
jailed for historical sex abuse on girl

A 71-year-old
man from Carmarthenshire has been jailed for three years for
historical sex abuse.

Evan Heddwyn
Jones from Llanwrda was convicted of four counts of indecent
assault on a child between 14 and 16 years from 1976 to
1978.

Swansea Crown
Court heard he was employed to pick up school children and drop
them at their nearest bus stop.

His victim was
the last to be dropped off and Judge Keith Thomas said he "took
advantage of the situation."

The victim,
Esther Hoad - who now lives in Ireland - has chosen to waive her
right to anonymity to speak about the sexual abuse she suffered as
a child.In an interview
with BBC Wales, she said: "When the abuse first started I just felt
wretched.

I felt confused
and guilty that I had somehow attracted all this unwanted attention
to myself.

"I cringed in
the school taxi every time he touched me or spoke to me. My
feelings were guilt and self-loathing, confusion and powerlessness
for allowing this to happen to me.

"As an adult I
now know that this was misplaced guilt, but as the child I was
then, I felt I was to blame."

Hoad decided to
approach the police in 2014 after disclosing her sex abuse
experiences to her therapist

Ms Hoad said
she only decided to approach the police in 2014 after disclosing
her experiences to her therapist.

"As the
statements gathered by Dyfed-Powys police came in from people I
grew up with, from people I went to school with, from other members
of my family,

I was appalled
and angry, because it became crystal clear that everybody knew and
that nobody did anything," she said.

Ms Hoad hopes
that by waiving her right to anonymity, it will encourage sexual
abuse victims to speak out.

Det Con Lee
Davies said: "The sentencing of Jones is a significant result for
Dyfed-Powys Police and also the victim of these abhorrent
crimes.

"It has taken
great courage for her to come forward and to stand before a judge
and jury to provide her evidence.

St Patrick’s
Guild adoption agency requested a payment of “at least €50,000”
from Tusla before it would transfer the more than 13,000 adoption
records it holds.

The agency made
the request on numerous occasions throughout 2015 and 2016. It was
excluded from the current Mother and Baby Homes Commission despite
the Government being told by the Adoption Authority of Ireland
(AAI) that the agency was aware of “several hundred” illegal birth
registrations.

It ceased
operating at the end of 2014 but, due to lengthy negotiations to
ensure Tusla were indemnified against any legal action taken by
people seeking their records, the files were not transferred until
May 2016.

However, it has
emerged that the agency had contacted Tusla a number of times
throughout 2015 and 2016 seeking a payment of €50,000 before it
would agree to transfer any records.

Documents
released under Freedom of Information show that Sr Francis Fahy,
director of services with St Patrick’s Guild (SPG), wrote to Tusla
national manager for adoption Siobhán Mugan in October 2015
requesting an “immediate payment” in regard to almost €48,000 in
expenses.

She had
previously made a request in April of that year and stated that SPG
had not been funded by Tusla since it closed in December 2014, but
had continued offering a service to adopted people and natural
parents “albeit in a more limited way”.

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:20 PM

2/2...“It is
now a matter of some urgency,” said Sr Fahy.

“At this time I
am enclosing an account of the actual expenses to date for 2015 and
would be glad to receive an immediate payment in regard of these
expenses. If further details are required please let me
know.

A further sum
will be required later as often payments fall due from October
until such time as the service and the records are transferred to
Tusla.”

The attached
expenses from January to September 2015 included almost €10,000 on
gas and electricity and phone bills of more than
€2,000.

Ms Mugan
responded to Sr Fahy stating that when the agency ceased operating
there was no agreement with Tusla to continue funding into
2015.

She pointed out
that, “in fact, it was agreed that the records would be in the
possession of Tusla by late January, early February 2015 at the
latest”.

However, Sr
Fahy wrote to Tusla again in February of this year stating that it
would need a payment of “at least 50,000” before it could transfer
anything of the 13,000 adoption files.

She pointed out
that the agency was preserving and maintaining the records and
offering a service on the understanding that its costs would be
covered by the State.

“We were given
to understand that upon submission of the necessary documentation
and accounts funding would be made available to cover the costs
incurred during this period,” said Sr Fahy. It was with this
understanding that the work was carried out in good
faith.

“While every
effort has been made to bring the negotiations to a conclusion this
has not yet been possible.

Therefore, at
this time, and as a matter of urgency, it is necessary to request
that a payment of at least €50,000 be made prior to the transfer of
the records.”

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:16 PM

1/2...Foster
children forced to share beds; Some left with carers who had been
refused due to care concerns…

The
malfunctioning state of foster care services across the Midlands
has been laid bare in a new report which shows that some children
in placements had to share rooms and even beds with other children
because of a lack of available places.

The Hiqa
inspection of the Midlands fostering service highlighted a
catalogue of issues across Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, and Longford,
including children having to rely on black plastic bags to move
their belongings or carers who refused to give children their
belongings on leaving the placement. In a small number of cases
children were placed in houses, which caused overcrowding and
resulted in unrelated children sharing bedrooms and sometimes
beds.

According to
the report, it was not always clear that children were related to,
or had an established relationship with, carers who were due to be
assessed as relative carers, while the level of monitoring and
oversight applied in relative carer placements was also
criticised.

There were also
issues with the foster care committee, including long delays in
decision-making.

According to
the report: “Some children have been placed since as far back as
2011 without a decision being reached.”

The report
said: “Inspectors found that a small number of foster carers who
had been refused by the foster care committee continued to care for
children, despite concerns about their ability to meet the needs of
children in care.”

It also found
allegations were not always managed in a timely manner and
uncovered issues with record-keeping.

ANON Oct
18th, 2016 @ 01:15 PM

2/2...At the
time of the May inspections, 101 children were placed with
relatives and the remaining 256 children were placed with general
foster carers.

The report
showed that of 26 standards inspected, six standards were judged as
at “significant risk”, and 20 standards needed
improvement.

It also found
8% of children had no allocated social worker and 45% of children
did not have an up-to-date written care plan, while there were 23
unplanned endings in placements in the two years prior to the
inspection.

In addition, 12
of the 111 children’s cases sampled and one in 10 of the foster
carer’s cases sampled were escalated by the inspection team to the
principal social worker for review due to a lack of timeliness or
appropriate action.

Safeguarding
visits to some children had not taken place, while the report said
staff were carrying significant caseloads and morale on some teams
was low.

Jennifer
Gargan, the director of Empowering People In Care (EPIC), said the
report’s findings were “extremely worrying” and “simply
unacceptable”.

“It is clear
from this report that there needs to be an effective campaign to
recruit more foster carers in this area.

Every child in
care should have an allocated social worker, care plan/aftercare
plan,” she said, adding that timeframes for completion of foster
care assessments are required to protect and promote child welfare
and stability.

The Care
Leavers Network said the report showed “Tusla having to rob from
Peter to pay Paul” due to systematic issues, while Barnardos’ head
of advocacy, June Tinsley, said the report was proof that money
given to Tusla in Budget 2017 needs to be spent on frontline
staff.

Jim Gibson,
chief operations officer with Tusla, said the Child and Family
Agency had put a plan in place to address the changes that need to
be made.

ANON Oct
17th, 2016 @ 12:33 PM

Mother
jailed for 18 months for child cruelty…

A 37-year-woman
who allowed her son to be beaten and raped by his father at the age
of six has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for child
cruelty.

The boy's
66-year-old father was last week sentenced to 14 years in jail for
rape and four years for cruelty to be served at the same
time.

The court was
told the woman herself had come from an appalling, dysfunctional
background of abuse and was not capable of protecting
children.

The bill for
compensating survivors of child abuse in Northern Ireland could run
to £30 million, campaigners have warned.

Some 524
victims could be eligible to make claims over their treatment in
institutions from 1922-1995, including at the notorious Kincora
Boys' Home in Belfast and by paedophile priest Brendan
Smyth.

Campaigners are
urging the Stormont Executive to agree to a special redress scheme,
with basic payments starting at £10,000, to avoid lengthy,
traumatic and expensive civil actions in the courts.

They said it
could save £10m off the final bill.

Margaret
McGuckin of Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse, said: "It
is now up to ministers to deliver.

"Redress is a
practical way for Government and others to say sorry for how badly
they let us down as children. We suffered then and have suffered
the consequences through our lives ever since - psychological
damage and lost opportunities.

We shouldn't
have to suffer on into our old age as well."

The chairman of
Northern Ireland's Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, Sir
Anthony Hart, is due to report to Stormont ministers in January on
157 days of public hearings and evidence from 392
witnesses.

Survivors of
abuse are to take their campaign for a suitable redress scheme to
the doors of the Assembly on Monday.

Jon McCourt, of
Survivors North West, called on Stormont chiefs to listen closely
and take their advice seriously.

"Victims and
survivors are a very vulnerable group - some of them are very
elderly and have health problems. The Executive office should move
with urgency to consult with victims and to then set up the redress
scheme," he said.

"We have waited
for justice for long enough."

ANON Oct
17th, 2016 @ 12:28 PM

2/2...Survivors, backed by
Amnesty International, called for the Assembly to "secure and ring
fence" money for compensation funds.

The £20m to
£30m costs were calculated by Quarter Chartered Accountants. The
company was commissioned by the independent Panel of Experts on
Redress, which includes Ms McGuckin and Mr McCourt, survivors,
their representative groups, academics, lawyers, human rights
organisations and others.

It proposed a
basic £10,000 payment for anyone who suffered child abuse in an
institution, with length of time spent in a home also taken into
account, along with assessment of mental, physical and sexual abuse
suffered.

Survivors said
a Government -run compensation scheme would be more cost-effective
and much less traumatic for victims than the courts.

The campaigners
noted that the final number of people eligible to make a claim for
their treatment will not be known until Sir Anthony Hart's report
is finished.

They urged
Stormont ministers to open talks on a potential scheme and on the
financial contribution to be made by religious orders and other
organisations which ran many of the children's homes where abuse
took place.

Public hearings
at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry ended in July after
two and a half years.

Hundreds of
vulnerable former residents provided deeply-personal and harrowing
claims of sexual, physical and emotional suffering over many
decades in care homes run by the church, state and the Barnardo's
children's charity.

Some of the
most devastating incidents involved abuse inflicted at the Kincora
home, and by the notorious paedophile priest Brendan
Smyth.

The report by
the Panel of Experts on Redress will be presented in Parliament
Buildings, Stormont on Monday.

A spokeswoman
for the Executive said ministers remain sensitive to abuse
survivors and are mindful of the destructive impact of their
experiences.

"The nature or
level of any potential redress, as stipulated in the inquiry's
terms of reference, is a matter the Executive will discuss and
agree following receipt of the Inquiry's report," she
said.

ANON Oct
15th, 2016 @ 12:01 PM

Man (71)
jailed for 2½ years for abusing girls in 1970s…

A woman broke
down and cried in the Crown Court in Derry yesterday when a Co
Donegal pensioner who sexually abused her and her two sisters over
a 10-year period starting more than 40 years ago, was jailed for 2½
years.

John Callaghan
(71) from Drung in Quigley’s Point, showed no reaction when Judge
Philip Babington jailed him for what the judge described as
appalling abusive behaviour.

Callaghan, who
had no previous criminal convictions, pleaded guilty to 14 charges
of indecently assaulting the three sisters in the homes of family
members and friends in Derry between January 1972 and January
1982.

The sisters
were aged six, nine and 11 respectively when Callaghan started
abusing them.

They first
reported the abuse to a social worker in Letterkenny hospital in
July 2014 and then made formal statements of complaint to the PSNI
in Derry the following August and September.

Last March,
Callaghan was arrested by Gardaí and after he was handed over to
the PSNI he was interviewed and denied the allegations saying: “I
never interfered with anybody.”

He later
pleaded guilty to the offences and told a consultant psychiatrist
during the preparation of a presentence report: “I didn’t think it
was any harm, I didn’t think there was any harm in
it.”

The court was
told that Callaghan now accepted that what he did was wrong and he
apologised to his three victims.

The judge said
that victim-impact reports stated that the three sisters had been
deeply affected by the abuse and that they might require
professional counselling in the future. He said Callaghan’s abuse
of his victims had a destructive effect on their family.

ANON Oct
14th, 2016 @ 04:52 PM

Ex-pop star
Peter MacBeth jailed for indecent assault…

Sixties pop
star Peter MacBeth has been sentenced for indecently assaulting a
young girl.

The 79-year-old
from Bangor, Gwynedd, was the founding member of The Foundations
and had a worldwide hit with Build Me Up Buttercup.

He was
previously jailed in 2008 for sexually abusing a second young girl
and downloading indecent images.

A Caernarfon
Crown Court jury found him guilty of indecent assault on Thursday
and he was jailed for 34 months.

Judge Merfyn
Hughes QC told him: "It's clear you have very little insight into
your offending behaviour and you have no intention of addressing
your risk to children."

ANON Oct
14th, 2016 @ 04:49 PM

1/2...GP
loses appeal against indecent assault verdict….

A Cork GP found
guilty of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old female patient 26
years ago has lost an appeal against conviction.

Kevin Mulcahy,
aged 57, of Creggan, Lombardstown, Mallow, Co Cork, had pleaded not
guilty to a single charge of indecently assaulting the girl while
on call to her family home on December 23, 1989.

He was found
guilty by a jury after a retrial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court
following 39 minutes of deliberations and he was jailed for two
years by Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin on November 25, 2015.

Mulcahy was
granted bail in December 2015 by the Court of Appeal pending an
appeal against conviction, which was dismissed
yesterday.

Giving judgment
on Mulcahy’s unsuccessful appeal, Mr Justice John Edwards said the
doctor had regularly attended the home of the complainant to treat
her mother who had terminal cancer.

On one of these
visits, the complainant was suffering from a head cold of sorts and
while examining her, Mulcahy touched her vagina on the outside of
her clothing for some minutes.

Mulcahy was
arrested and interviewed in 2011 on foot of a complaint of indecent
assault.

When asked if
he recalled the girl being a patient of his, Mulcahy said he had a
pre-prepared, typed statement in which he said the allegations were
“blatantly false”.

Following the
signing of the statement, he was asked a number of questions and in
reply said, “I have nothing to say other than what’s written in my
statement”, the judge said.

These
additional questions and answers were put before the jury, which
Blaise O’Carroll, defending, submitted breached his right to
silence and irretrievably tainted his credibility in the minds of
the jury.

ANON Oct
14th, 2016 @ 04:46 PM

2/2...Prosecuting lawyers
said Mulcahy was not saying nothing but that he had voluntarily
commented at length in his statement.

Mr Justice
Edwards said it was clear Mulcahy did not elect to say nothing but
to reiterate that he was relying on his statement.

The
supplementary questions merely afforded him the opportunity to add
to or change the statement after hearing the specifics of the
allegations for the first time or being reminded of them it was
unclear which, the judge said.

In relation to
the second ground of appeal, that the trial judge failed to warn
the jury about the danger of convicting in the absence of
corroboration, Mr Justice Edwards said the trial judge was not
asked to give a corroboration warning.

Furthermore,
when the trial judge said he “half expected” to be asked to give a
corroboration warning and said he wouldn’t have given one anyway,
defence counsel said “thank you, judge”, Mr Justice Edwards
said.

He said the
essential justice of the case did not require the court to
intervene.Mr Justice
Edwards, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr
Justice

Alan Mahon,
said the appeal must be dismissed.Mulcahy was
remanded on continuing bail on the basis that he was given a “very
early” hearing date for his sentence appeal.

The court heard
that Mulcahy had met all requirements made of him and there was
never any suggestion that he was a flight risk or had interfered
with witnesses.

ANON Oct
13th, 2016 @ 12:55 PM

1/2...Boy
raped by father was also abused in foster care…

Tusla has
defended the foster placement in which a boy who had already
suffered abuse at the hands of his father was again abused, this
time by another young person.

The Child and
Family Agency also said it could not provide any additional details
regarding whether any other children had been placed in the same
foster setting at the same time as the alleged perpetrator, or if
there was any other allegation of abuse relating to
it.

The
circumstances surrounding the placement have come under scrutiny
after the sentencing judge in the case involving the boy’s father
referred to it when jailing the man for 14 years this
week.

The boy’s
father, a 66-year-old man, was sentenced to 14 years in prison last
Monday after the court heard details of horrific abuse carried out
against his son.

The Central
Criminal Court heard that from the time the boy turned six he was
raped by his father on a number of occasions and that he was also
locked in a box.

The boy’s
father continues to deny the abuse and has signalled that he will
appeal.

The boy was
removed from the family home just before his eighth birthday in
2011, but in the subsequent foster placement he was sexually abused
by another young person.

He was then
moved into another foster placement, where he was happier. He later
made disclosures regarding the abuse by his father.

In his
sentencing remarks Mr Justice Robert Eagar said it had not been
wise to put the boy in the foster home where he was sexually abused
and that it was “quite clear” there was a large amount of sexual
abuse occurring in the house.

ANON Oct
13th, 2016 @ 12:53 PM

2/2...Responding to
questions from the Irish Examiner, Tusla said: “It can be confirmed
that the child was placed with experienced foster
carers.

There was/ is
no allegation of abuse against the foster carers, nor were there
any concerns about this placement when the decision was made to
place the child there.

Any concerns
raised in the course of the placement were addressed in line with
‘Children First’ guidelines, including liaison with An Garda
Síochána.”

As to whether
or not other children were in a placement at the same time as the
alleged perpetrator, or if there were any other allegations, a
spokesperson for the Child and Family Agency said: “As this is an
individual case, it would be inappropriate for Tusla to comment
further.”

Foster
placements in the south-east were already under scrutiny following
revelations in the ‘Grace’ case involving a woman with serious
intellectual difficulties who was left in a foster placement where
it is alleged she suffered abuse.

A Tusla
spokesperson said: “In relation to fostering placements, each child
is placed in a care setting appropriate to his/her needs in
accordance his/her Care Plan. In the majority of cases, the best
place for a child in care is in a foster placement in their own
community.

In making
foster care placements, Tusla matches each child with a foster
carer who is best suited to meet the child’s identified needs. In
some cases, this may be a relative, in others it is with a general
foster carer.”

Tusla said all
foster carers are vetted and approved through formal Foster Care
Committees and any concerns relating to a child in foster care are
managed in line with ‘Children First National Guidance for the
Protection and Welfare of Children’

ANON Oct
11th, 2016 @ 11:40 AM

Flynn ends
Artane Band protest on City Hall window ledge…

Gardaí escort
councillor from building after demonstration over Christian
Brothers link

Mannix Flynn, a
former resident of St Joseph’s Industrial School in Artane, wants
the band to be brought to an end due to its associations with the
Christian Brothers.

Independent
Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn was escorted by gardaí from
City Hall on Dublin’s Dame Street on Monday evening following a
protest where he called for the disbanding of the Artane
Band.

Three Gardaí
escorted Mr Flynn from City Hall at around 5.30pm ahead of the
monthly council meeting, after he climbed out an upstairs window of
the main council chamber holding a banner calling for the band to
be disbanded.

Mr Flynn sat on
the window ledge, around 30ft from the ground for some minutes,
before he calmly left with Gardaí. Gardaí said he had not been
arrested.

Mr Flynn
returned to the council chamber shortly before 7pm. He said he had
been taken to Pearse Street Garda station where he explained he was
“engaged in a lawful protest”.

He said Gardaí
told him they had been concerned for his safety because of the
height of the window ledge, but told him he was free to
go.

Mr Flynn, a
former resident of St Joseph’s Industrial School in Artane wants
the band to be brought to an end due to its associations with the
Christian Brothers.

The band is
synonymous with the GAA and traditionally plays before marquee
matches at Croke Park, including All-Ireland finals.

While
celebrated for its musical heritage, for some the band remains a
symbol of the industrial school.

Con Hogan,
chairman of the from which the Artane Band is drawn, recently
issued a statement saying it is a community-based, voluntary
organisation located in the North City Artane area from which it
takes its name. 03/10/2016

The trigger for
one of the victims to come forward was seeing a male PCSO visit her
school in 2015.

The court heard
both girls had found it "impossible to come to terms" with what had
happened.

The judge
sentenced Bunyan to 24 years for three counts of rape of a child
under 13 and seven years concurrent for sexual assault of a child.
He was found not guilty of one count of rape of a
child.

Misconduct
conviction...

A Devon and
Cornwall Police spokesman said: "The public have a right to expect
exemplary behaviour from all members of the police service who are
there to protect them."

Bunyan was
convicted in 2013 at Taunton Crown Court of eight counts of
misconduct in public office and jailed for seven years, though the
sentence was later halved on appeal.

He is
understood to have worked as a PCSO from 2007 until he was
suspended in 2011 and dismissed in March 2013

ANON Oct
1st, 2016 @ 11:54 AM

1/2...Zappone backs
dig

at Tuam
mother and baby home burial site…

Archaeologists
to carry out test excavation at memorial garden on housing
estate

Minister for
Children Katherine Zappone has welcomed confirmation that a test
excavation is due to begin in the grounds of a former mother and
baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

Specialist
archaeologists hired by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of
Investigation are due to begin work this weekend, weather
permitting, at the memorial garden located on the Dublin Road
housing estate in Tuam.

Ms Zappone paid
tribute to a group of survivors from the former home when she met
them in Tuam today along with local historian Catherine Corless,
who documented the deaths of 796 toddlers and babies.

She said the
survivors had explained to her how important the work of the
commission was in “bearing witness” to their
experience.

Ms Zappone said
the decision on a test excavation was taken by the commission,
which she met in recent days, and she understood the work would be
led by a forensic archaeologist and last five weeks.

ANON
Oct 1st, 2016 @ 11:52 AM

2/2...The
commission said a “sample of the site”will be excavated, and work
will take place in co-operation with the Garda.

A fraction of
the site would be excavated through test trenches which had been
informed by a geophysical survey of the site conducted in October
2015, it said.

It said the
purpose was to “ resolve a number of queries that the Mother and
Baby Homes Commission has in relation to the interment of human
remains at this location”, and it would focus on “timeline and
stratigraphy”.

Ms Corless
welcomed the development, and said it was very important for the
many hundreds of people who had contacted her about her research,
most of whom believed they had siblings buried in the
area.

“It is
wonderful when people have been able to trace their family, as has
happened in some cases,” Ms Corless said.

Ms Zappone said
she expected the commission reports, which could be very extensive,
would be on target for February 2018.

An interim
report is currently with the Attorney-General.

The commission
is charged with investigating 14 mother and baby homes and four
county homes.

Ms Zappone, who
was also at NUI Galway (NUIG) to mark a new degree course and
publication of new research on neighbourhoods in Dublin, Limerick
and Galway, said the childcare package in the coming Budget would
be “simplified” and “graded”.

“In doing that
we also have the opportunity to be smarter about the way we
subsidise according to the net income of a household,” she
said.

ANON
Oct 1st, 2016 @ 11:46 AM

Bristol
child sex abuser, 81, jailed for 16 years…

An 81-year-old
man who was deported from Canada has been jailed for sex offences
against children in Bristol in the 1970s.

Julian Mardon,
who had been in jail in Canada for offences against children,
admitted 16 charges.

He was
sentenced to 16 years. He was found not guilty of nine other
offences, following a trial at Bristol Crown Court

Mardon was
arrested on arrival at Heathrow Airport in March.

The offences he
admitted to related to three boys, who were aged between 11 and 16
at the time.

Speaking after
sentencing Det Sgt Katherine Davis said Mardon was a "dangerous man
with a deplorable track record of being able to manipulate and
influence people in order to abuse children".

"Mardon was
serving a prison sentence in Canada for similar offences committed
against children during his time there and he was deported
following his release from prison," she said.

ANON
Oct 1st, 2016 @ 11:44 AM

Ex-Salvation
Army man jailed for raping young recruits…

A former
Salvation Army captain has been jailed for seven years for raping
two recruits more than 30 years ago.

Robert
Chisholm, 70, from Glasgow, was convicted of raping the first woman
at his then home in Saltcoats, shortly after her 21st birthday
party in 1978.

He later moved
to Kilmarnock and raped the other woman, who was aged 20, after
they had been out selling the church charity's War Cry
magazine.

Chisholm was
caught after one of the victims contacted police years
later.

Jailing him at
the High Court in Livingston, judge Lord Turnbull told Chisholm
that he had abused the trust bestowed on him by his rank in the
church charity.

He said
Chisholm's name would remain on the sex offenders register for
seven years.

A previous
hearing at the High Court in Glasgow was told Chisholm served as a
Salvation Army captain in Ayrshire in the late 1970s.

He was
described as a "determined sexual predator". The court heard one of
the victims became pregnant and had his child.

Chisholm was
caught in 2014 when one of the women went to police sparking an
investigation into his background.

Prosecutor
Steven Borthwick said Chisholm had betrayed his position of trust
in the most appalling way.

"Having carried
out depraved sexual attacks, he instilled a fear that they would
not be believed, ensuring their silence," he told the
court.

After the
verdict, it emerged that Chisholm left the Salvation Army in the
early 80s.Chisholm had
denied all the allegations and did not give evidence during the
trial.

John Keenan,
defending, said there was little he could say in mitigation because
Chisholm continued to deny responsibility for the
offences.

He added: "He
does at least recognize that he abused the position of trust he was
in at that time in the Salvation Army."